Work in Progress

Saturday evening 1 Granary went to check out Work in Progress, the Central Saint Martins illustration show 2013, on its opening night. There was an incredibly wide variety of fabulous work, ranging from photorealistic pencil drawings, digital illustrations to childlike paintings. Here are a couple of our favourites! Recently-featured on 1 Granary, Roxanne Gatt is one talented girl whose mad party worlds, filled with fat wonder women, furry creatures, Leigh Bowery look-a-likes, and the occasional massive penis remind us of a Taboo club night in the 80s – with a group of wild CSM kids of course!

Apart from these exciting illustrations, Roxanne had a lovely photo book on show with pictures she took in her home country, Malta. Completely different from some of her drawings in feel and aesthetic, the photos explored themes of alienation and otherness she experienced when returning to the once-familiar Malta. It was refreshing to see the two different sides of this artist.

http://www.roxannegattillustration.com The beautifully soft pastel colours in Clio Isadora Delcour-Min’s ‘Anxiety Portraits’ created a really interesting contrast. Girls were all depicted with strange, disturbed looks on their faces. With their witch-like features, green skin and little white socks, we couldn’t quite decide whether they looked more like wicked witches or cute schoolgirls; best of both worlds if you ask us.

We were super happy to bump into the incredibly talented 1 Granary-favourite Frida Wannerberger, who did an amazing series of illustrations of last year’s MA Fashion collection for us. Frida’s work is instantly recognisable. And more than that, her super quirky play on proportions and girliness never fails to make us smile. What could make us smile even more than her cute little booklet of illustrations, accompanied by cheeky lines like ‘I’m like what the fuck’? And an almost life-size poster of an immaculately-dressed Frida girl. Remember this name, we’re sure she’s going to be huge in the very near future!!

The bruised, red knees and bleeding nose in Simon Santhanam’s Savage Blossoms, a study on boyhood, are drawn really beautifully. With little details added in unexpected colours, clever cropping and a sense of movement, these photorealistic drawings have a lot of emotion and life to them. The boy and his piercing gaze even brought some of us back to childhood memories…

Despite the relatively simple shapes and clean layout, Edward-Carvalho Monaghan’s cartoon strip is a visually overwhelming spectacle. Suitably titled ‘The Trip’, following the story of this eyeball-y creature picture by picture feels like just that: a really trippy trip.